V5n3 RURAL MATHEMATICS EDUCATOR (final draft before posting html version) Feature
Preparing Students Mathematically in the Andean Mountains Joseph M. Furner, Florida Atlantic University
Amparo De Rocha & Juliana Saenz, Colegio Nueva Granada/Hogar Nueva Granada
Synopsis
Introduction
If you help others, you will be helped, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in one hundred years, but you will be helped. Nature must pay off the debt... It is a mathematical law, and all life is mathematics. (Gurdjieff)
This article describes how one rural low-income barrio school in the outskirts of Bogotá, Colombia, high in the Andean Mountains and serving approximately 5,800 residents, developed their curriculum based on the NCTM and Florida standards and grade-level expectations. Through intensive teacher training the teachers incorporated NCTM practices for teaching mathematics into daily math lessons. Faculty and founders hoped to break the poverty cycle as by developing students’ mathematical capacities for their future in our competitive high-tech world.
The school’s population is made of the two lowest poverty levels (1 and 2) in Colombia with many abandoned mothers and extremely low-income families who may not have had the chance otherwise to send their children to school. The school is located in a rural setting at an altitude of approximately 9,000 feet above sea level, in a remote area, with a very scenic view of mountains and trees (see photos).
Hogar Nueva Granada Houses near Hogar Nueva Granada
(hereafter, merely “the Hogar”) also allows the parents to work, It provides child care starting at age 2.
To provide North American readers a sense of the Colombian context, we next list some vital statistics. It’s easy to infer the sorts of challenges that confront Colombian citizens and educators:
• Total population 44 million
• 18.5 million between 0 and 18 years of age who work • 24 thousand street children
• 3.2 million school age children out of school • 60 % school dropout
• More than 2 million people fled their homes to become refugees in the larger cities.
• 22% have concentrated in Bogotá and its surrounding areas • 55% under 18 years of age
• 46% are younger than 14 years of age (UNICEF, 1997)
The Origins of the School
Education contributes to improved incomes and thereby to reduction in poverty.” (Asian Development Bank, 2001, p. 5; see also Goodlad and Keating, 1994).
Hogar Nueva Granada is thus founded on the concept of early intervention. Kagen (2004), for instance, contends that early childhood intervention may be critical in helping to lower poverty levels. Indeed, Harris (1996) believes that intervention should start at conception. The hope that schooling could be a successful intervention, of course, is reflected in the position of the U.S. National Head Start Association (1994), which contends that since 1965 Head Start’s goal has been to work toward breaking the poverty cycle. Whatever the research base for this hope (see Shaul, 2003, and Ebert, 1990, for further discussion), readers must know that the hope originates with the community wanting its school to address the issues of poverty and inequity. This aspiration is reflected in the schools vision and mission. The vision statement follows:
To make of Hogar Nueva Granada an Educational Center that will benefit the children, their parents, and the community members from the nearby rural low income barrios, giving them the opportunity to break their poverty cycle and promote a better future for themselves and society as a whole in Colombia.
Mathematics Curriculum and Instruction
February Weeks Geometry---2-Dimensional, 3-Dimensional, Spatial Sense 3 Coop/Problem-Solving Introduction to be used all year
Math Attitudes Survey/Pretest of Math Content
March
Measurement and Algebra as related to Geometry 4
Perimeter, Area, Volume, Formulas, Angles, etc
April
Number Sense Concepts and Place Value/Base-10 System 4 Sorting, Classifying, Comparing
May
Number Sense Concepts and Operations 4-5
Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division,
Word-Problems
June
Measurement, Units-U.S, Customary, and Metric, Time, Money . 4 Weight, Capacity, Mass, Volume
August
September
Number Sense Concepts and Operations, Pre-Fraction,
Operations related to: Fractions, Decimals, Percents, and 4 Ratios related to Geometry
October
Data Analysis/ Statistics/Data Collections/Mean, Median, Mode, 4 Range, Graphs, etc.
November
Probability/Theoretical and Experimental/ Coins, Dice, Spinners
Fractions, Decimals, Percents, Ratios, Predictions, Graphs 4
Problem-Solving and manipulatives are incorporated across the mathematics curriculum. Literature, cooperative learning, and use of technology are integrated, as well. Individual daily learning benchmarks are a reflection of the NCTM Standards/ Florida Sunshine State Standards and Kansas State Standards (preschool standards).
Teacher Training
the school fostered a culture of working together for the good of the students and the community—lots of sharing, discussion, receptiveness, and minimization of “ego.”
Aside from this over climate of collaboration, teachers received weekly and monthly in-service sessions, plus follow-ups. Topics included curriculum, assessment, use of manipulatives, modeling, and math content (content of the varied strands). Family Math Night brought teachers and community together and reinforced the culture the school was working to cultivate.
Among the first tasks, the Hogar considered how to develop low-cost math materials that could allow these children the same opportunities that their “brother” school (the
founding Colegio) was giving its students. Every day articles like hair pins; cooking items; shoes soles; cheap toys; veterinarian supplies (syringes); recycling materials like boxes, plastic jars, etc; papier mache; architectural designers left over cardboard; balsa wood and paper articles, became the inspiration for the low cost materials the school needed. The Colegio Nueva Granada (CNG) community was also committed to producing manipulatives.
Putting it all Together to Realize the Vision
The math program at the Hogar started its third year in place in February 2006. Teachers are excited and say they see a difference, they see the children learning faster and understanding mathematics concepts. The goal for the current school year is to implement a program called “Pequenos Genios” [Little Geniuses], an investigative, hands-on program for teaching and learning science. The school is hopeful that with the emphasis on strong math, science, and technology backgrounds they are better preparing these students to move out of poverty.
The lead author has returned to Florida, but visits the Hogar regularly and uses the Internet and e-mail to communicate and share ideas with the teachers. The students will soon be assessed and their progress will be compared with that of students at other public schools in Colombia.
References
Asian Development Bank. (2001). Breaking the cycle of poverty through education. Manila, Philippines: Author.
Ebert, C. C. (1990). The importance of dropout prevention and education in breaking the cycle of poverty.
Goodlad, J I., Keating, P. (1994). Access to knowledge: The continuing agenda for our nation's schools. Revised Edition. New York, NY: College Board Publications. Harris, I. B. (1996). Children in jeopardy. Can we break the cycle of poverty? New
Kagen, S. L. (2004). Improving urban student achievement through early childhood reform: What state policymakers can do. Denver, CO: Education Commission of
the States.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2000). Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. NCTM: Reston, VA.: Author.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (1989). Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics. NCTM: Reston, VA.: Author.
National Head Start Association. (1994). Welfare reform and head start. Alexandria, VA: Authors. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 375 924).
Feature
Reform of Secondary Mathematics Education in High-performing Rural Schools Aimee Howley
Abstract:
Rural schools, like others in the nation, are enjoined to use national and state standards as the basis for educational reform. Moreover, national standards for
mathematics education were established early (1989) and have been disseminated widely. Nevertheless, little is known about the dynamics of standards-based reform of
mathematics in rural schools. This paper reports findings from a set of four case studies of mathematics education in rural secondary schools to provide insights into the
dynamics of instructional reform. Analysis of data from interviews, observations, and documents revealed two emergent themes: 1) math teachers address calls for
improvement by building on traditional practices and (2) math teachers meld traditional and reform practices.
Summary:
Objectives or purposes
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has worked diligently for at least 15 years to articulate and disseminate standards to foster the improvement of
may be difficult to dispute (e.g., Steen, 1990), the role of official standards remains problematic.
One reason that the standards are less effective than reformers might hope is that they run counter to well-entrenched views about what mathematics is and how it should be taught. Arguably, moreover, a traditional view of mathematics and mathematics education might be harder to dislodge in communities where tradition itself is honored (Howley, 2003). In fact, other approaches to improvement might have greater cultural resonance, and therefore greater likelihood of success, in such communities (Howley, Woodrum, & Turner, 2006).
Dynamics such as these were revealed in the analysis of qualitative data from a set of case studies of rural secondary schools with above average scores on the state’s accountability test in mathematics. This paper describes what these schools were doing to “reform” mathematics education, showing that their efforts tended to focus more on changes that were resonant with customary educational practices than on changes that were resonant with national standards. Nevertheless, in some of the schools, highly respected educators promoted and worked to sustain reforms that melded traditional practices with standards-based reforms.
Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
drive standards-based reform may intensify the potential for conflict between traditional and reform pedagogy (Howley, 2003). At the same time, they understand that such conditions might provide opportunities for educators to seek common ground between community perspectives on educational standards and those publicized by educators and policy makers (Jennings, 2000).
The standards released by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1989, 2000) have had a dramatic influence on how mathematics teacher educators understand the purposes and methods of mathematics instruction. These standards,
moreover, have served as the model for state-level content standards in mathematics (e.g., Joyner & Bright, 2001). Studies of the actual use of such standards in rural schools, however, have not been conducted. Existing evidence suggests that mathematics instruction in rural schools has changed little and that achievement overall is similar to national averages (Howley & Gunn, 2003). Some evidence suggests that at “higher levels” of mathematics knowledge (i.e., college preparatory high school mathematics), rural students achieve less well than other students, take fewer “rigorous” high school math courses and, in general, experience instruction that places “little emphasis on rich numeracy experiences across the curriculum” (Bottoms & Carpenter, 2005, p. 1).
“rigorous” mathematics classes for all students. These represent long established versions of “high standards” and “rigor”; the innovation is to apply them to all students.
Additional evidence of disengagement with national professional standards concerns textbook adoptions. A number of series of such textbooks have been published commercially (developed with funding from the National Science Foundation and based on the NCTM vision). Adoption rates are low not only in rural areas (Silver & Castro, 2002) but in affluent university towns (Lubienski, 2000).
In short, there is little reason to expect strong engagement with the
long-established and heavily promoted national standards. Nonetheless, the question remains: if rural schools are not following national standards, what paths are they following to respond to accountability pressures for higher performance? Do these paths entail changes in pedagogy or curriculum, and, if so, in what ways, under what conceptions, and to what extent?
Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
The research was designed as a qualitative case study. Because data gathering was completed with a large staff of research assistants over a relatively short period of time, the research team used a structured approach (Yin, 2003). The same interview questions, observation forms, and document collection protocols were used across all of the schools. The principal investigator provided training to all of the researchers and consulted
They also collected relevant documents such as school discipline policies, lesson plans, classroom tests, and other teacher-made instructional materials. Interviews included one-on-one conversations with adult informants (administrators, teachers, parents, and community members) and focus-group discussions with students. Approximately 24 interviews (lasting from 30 – 90 minutes) were conducted at each site. All interviews were transcribed, and transcripts were prepared for analysis with Atlas-Ti software
Data sources or evidence
The research was conducted under the sponsorship of the Ohio Department of Education, which sought information about a group of schools identified as “Schools of Promise.” These schools served communities with large numbers of economically disadvantaged students (40% of the school population or more), and they all were achieving high pass-rates on Ohio’s accountability tests. Four secondary schools were among those studied by our team. Math achievement in these schools was considerably higher than what might be expected based on demographics alone. The schools included one 9-12 high school, one 5-8 middle school, and two 7-12 high schools. The 7-12 schools were located in Southeastern (i.e., Appalachian) Ohio, and the 5-8 and 9-12 schools—buildings within the same district—were located in the Southwestern part of the state.
then combined into five categories relating to broad domains of practice—academic focus (i.e., curriculum and instruction), leadership, parent and community engagement, professional development, and school structure and culture. Next, the categorized data were recoded inductively in an effort to identify emergent themes. Two researchers separately recoded data and combined codes in order to identify themes. Then they compared results. Themes that both researchers identified as explanatory were considered salient.
This study reports on information derived from the analysis of data that were originally categorized as relating to Academic Focus. These data provided insight into the instructional strategies that teachers used in order to improve students’ learning of
mathematics.
Results and/or conclusions/point of view
Two themes emerged from the analysis of these data: (1) math teachers address calls for improvement by building on traditional practices and (2) math teachers meld traditional and reform practices. Data from most of the interviews, observations, and documents supported the first theme. The second theme was less well represented in the data, reflecting a less popular but nevertheless cogent approach to the problem of improving students’ learning of mathematics.
example, many teachers believed that selection of appropriate curriculum materials and identification of the best (i.e., most carefully aligned) curricular sequence would improve students’ performance. In addition, educators at all of the schools expressed the view that the provision of one-on-one tutoring would result in higher test scores. Furthermore, most believed that their schools’ assignment of students to curriculum tracks worked well. Some educators, however, added a caveat. From their vantage, tracking was effective only when students were given the opportunity to change tracks.
Evidence from interviews was particularly useful in establishing the extent to which teachers were making small adjustments to the traditional practices they had used habitually for many years. For example, teachers at one school talked about giving
juniors and seniors in the general track the opportunity to take Algebra with tenth-graders in the college preparatory track. This practice had been adopted recently, and a few students had taken advantage of the opportunity. Educators in another school described initiatives that helped teachers work collaboratively to design better classroom
assessments. At several schools, teachers talked about how they were expanding programs that enabled students to receive one-on-one tutoring.
to solve a problem. Observers also saw very little evidence that teachers were integrating technology.
Melding traditional and reform practices. In two of the schools, strong instructional leaders (in one case a curriculum director and in the other a senior math teacher) were working to promote somewhat more extensive reforms. Teachers from these schools spoke about the reforms, and observations and review of documents supported their assertions. Their efforts involved a shift from teacher-centered to student-centered instruction. One eleventh-grader’s description of his math teacher characterized this approach as follows:
He [the math teacher], like, he kind of goes backwards a little bit. Like, instead of teaching it to you, he kind of makes you try to catch it yourself, so that he can keep it, so you know how to do it longer.
Observations and interviews also established that in several classrooms in these schools students worked together to discuss solutions to thought-provoking problems. They also offered peer-tutoring to one another, apparently with the blessing of their teachers. Their teachers also encouraged them to write in math journals about the
Educational and scientific importance of study
Educational reform receives momentous billing at all levels of government, but its practice is least understood at the local level. And yet, a number of rural education
writers (e.g., Porter, 1997) have echoed Tip O’Neill’s old saw: all education reform is local. Like Lubienski’s study of math education reform in Ames, Iowa, this study offers insights about the dynamics of local reform action, and the continuities and
discontinuities of related intentions. Furthermore, it suggests that local engagement with instructional reform may not involve holistic implementation of a specified set of
practices so much as it involves incremental expansion and modification of traditional and culturally resonant methods.
References:
Bottoms, G., & Carpenter, K. (2005). Factors affecting mathematics achievement for students in rural schools. Atlanta, GA: Southern Regional Education Board
(Retrieved July 23, 2006, from
http://www.sreb.org/programs/hstw/publications/briefs/03V04_ResearchBrief_M ath.pdf).
Howley, A., Woodrum, A., & Turner, M. (2006, April). Culturally responsive leadership among principals of exemplary schools. Paper presented at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA.
Howley, C., & Gunn, E. (2003). Mathematics achievement in the rural circumstance. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 18(2), 86-95.
Jennings, N. (2000). Standards and local Curriculum: A zero-sum game?” Journal of Research in Rural Education, 16, 193–201.
Joyner, J.M., & Bright, G.W. (2001). Implementing and using mathematics standards in North Carolina. School Science and Mathematics, 101(6), 280-285.
Lubienski, S. T. (2000). Problem solving as a means toward mathematics for all: An exploratory look through a class lens. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education., 31(4), 454-482.
Miles, M., & Huberman, M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage Publications.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2000). Principles and standards for school mathematics. Reston, VA: Author.
Porter, M. (1997). Moving mountains: Reform, resistance, and resiliency in an Appalachian Kentucky high school. Unpublished dissertation, Stanford University. DAI-A 57/12, p. 5008.
Silver, E. A., & Castro, A. M. (2002). Mathematics Learning and Teaching in Rural Communities: Some research issues (Working Paper No. 14). Athens, OH:
Appalachian Collaborative Center for Learning, Assessment, and Instruction in Mathematics. (Retrieved July 23, 2006, from
http://www.acclaim-math.org/docs/working_papers/WP_14_Silver_Castro.pdf)
Steen, L.A. (1990). Numeracy. Daedelus, 119(2), 211-231.
Feature
A response to an ACT Study
Ready for College and Ready for Work: Same or Different?
Deborah Britt ( ACCLAIM cohort 2) Introduction
A recently released ACT study1 concludes that high school students, whether planning to enter college or workforce training programs after graduation, “need to be educated at comparable levels of readiness.” The study
(1) Identified the level of skills that students need for entry- level jobs requiring less than a bachelor’s degree;
(2) Compared student performance on ACT tests that measure workforce readiness with those measuring college readiness; and
(3) Determined whether the levels of performance needed for college and workforce readiness are the same or different. (p. 1)
Methodology of the Response
A commentary on each of the three processes used (identification of skills,
comparisons of two tests, and levels of performance needed) will include concerns about assumptions that are made as well as conclusions that are implied. Since both the method and assumptions lead to the suggested “Action Steps for Policy Makers,” concerns
regarding either would warrant a closer inspection of the suggested action steps. So, an analysis of the action steps will be attempted. Since this author is interested in matters affecting rural mathematics education, commentary will include examples of how this study might impact rural students.
For the sake of keeping the discussion geared towards the findings of the study, I will assume that students who graduate from high school either enter the work force or attend college. Assumptions about the purpose of schools and the definition of work force will be questioned as the report includes business and industry but excludes such
post-secondary experiences as self-employment, rural farming, and civic responsibilities. Possible conflict of interest issues will be addressed.
Identification of Skills
Several rural scholars such as Paul Theobald and Alan DeYoung support the notion that the pre-World War II practice of educating all students with common curriculum promotes democracy and secures the national interest. What students “deserve and must receive through schooling is an education conducive to the development of sense of political efficacy and, with this a program of concerned community enculturation into the ethic of shouldering a responsible measure of civic virtue.”2
There is agreement supported by The National Council of Teachers’ of Mathematics Standards3 that all students should learn and do mathematics. NCTM advocates that mathematics be taught with a great deal of depth and rigor for all students and that all students share common educational experiences. The question is: What is that common knowledge and who decides? It might be asked if there should be opportunities for all to go beyond the common knowledge if they so choose.
Having experiences with both an inner city school where I presently teach and a rural school where my son attends allows me to see implemented curriculum from multiple perspectives. This ACT report would seem to suggest that students in both locations have equal levels of expectation and content. The study states, “Although the contexts within which these expectations are taught and assessed may differ, the level of
expectation for all students must be the same” (p. 1).
So, then we must ask whether that common knowledge provides readiness for college and readiness for work. Is there knowledge that provides both? And,
by the U. S. Department of Labor. Job Zone 3, “the occupations likely to offer a wage sufficient to support a small family” (p. 2) are used to define work readiness. The coal miners of West Virginia and Kentucky would be included in Job Zone 3 according to these descriptors. (Their educational training did not matter much when they were trapped and died after the explosions; perhaps a different job readiness might have saved lives.)
The report fails to discuss what the common educational goals would be for jobs in other zones that might not provide a sufficient wage. This omission, in itself, seems to contradict that students exiting high school will have the same degree of readiness. The study asserts, “The primary mission of our public education system is to give every student the opportunity to live a meaningful and productive life, which includes earning a wage sufficient to support a small family” (p. 2). This strikes me as a very questionable statement. If that is our mission, then we are failing in the rural schools, and probably the inner city as well, since so few decent jobs are available in these living areas. In order to use their “common education,” these rural students must leave their community. What is the common education that will allow them to stay near their families?
Paul Theobald asserts that the common education ought to be about producing good citizens and that it should not be the farm team for business and industry. It might, for instance, be of best interest to the citizenry that schools help prevent the demise of the family farms. Our educational system can and sometimes does give equality of
expectations for learning. However, if your idea of a meaningful and productive life is to raise a small family on a farm, then what are your educational expectations? “Educating some students to a lesser standard than others narrows their options in jobs to work that …no longer pays well enough to support a family of four” (p. 2). But, in our present economy, educating some students to the highest standard possible will still not allow them to support a family of four by working family farm in our present economy [see Ron Smith’s essay in this issue for a personal reflection --ed.]
The study makes clear that the ACT definition of workforce readiness is really workforce training readiness. In other words, students graduating high school should be able to be trained for work and have the “foundational skills necessary to learn additional job-specific skills throughout their careers” (p. 3). This implies that students have
already learned job skills of some type and that some standard of common skills has been established. The ACT’s “WorkKeys” program contains job profiles and their minimal skill standards. The ACT WorkKeys was developed “with input from employers, labor organizations, educators and policymakers.” It is this program that was used to identify levels of readiness for jobs in the study.
The second program that was used as a comparison was the ACT. The ACT is used by many colleges to evaluate entrance requirements for admission and the report claims it measures college readiness. The guidance counselors at our local rural high school, however, suggest that students take the ACT if they would rather have achievement measured than reasoning skills. Which is the better predictor of “college readiness”: achievement or reasoning skills? This is a perennially open question and certainly reflects the decades-long contest between the ACT and the SAT.
Yet, both groups were expected to know the same material. What was really being measured? Was it the same for both groups? Can we assume that students missing the problem did not understand volume and therefore were not “ready” for college or the work force?
When mathematics readiness on the WorkKeys and the ACT are compared in Table 3, they both include Algebra and Algebraic Thinking; Geometry and Geometric
Thinking; and Data Representation and Statistical Reasoning as skill groups. This implies that Algebra, Geometry and Statistics should be included in the common knowledge for all students. If so, what level of performance on these mathematical topics is needed for job readiness or college readiness?
Levels of Performance
In Table 2 of the article, the ACT measures thinking skills as indicated by
descriptors. Words such as infer and understand are used in the 20-23 score range. In the WorkKeys’ Level 5, words such as use, recognize and select are used. It could be possible that students are able to score well on the WorkKeys but lack conceptual understanding and might not be ready for college as they might not be able to make inferences. It is also possible that students with creative abilities may not score at the highest level on the WorkKeys as they may be expecting more than simple recognition questions.
term to a situation” on the WorkKeys measure does not equate with “making inferences and generalizations” that are included on the ACT. The same can be said about the Algebra and Algebraic thinking section in Table 3. The ACT seems to engage concepts more than the WorkKeys. It seems questionable that the two tests measure the same kinds or levels of readiness.
In Table 5, there is a comparison chart showing two mathematical test questions. The study indicates that “the questions present problems in different contexts, but the
underlying mathematical skills each pair require is similar.” The problem given for the ACT college students asks students to use a formula (B = 7 LH where B is number of bricks, L is length of wall and H is height of the wall) to solve for the height given the length and number of bricks. Does this question have anything to do with college readiness, as this relates very little to reasoning and comprehension? It does show a simple knowledge of an algebraic formula but students could solve the problem with computational skills only.
Consider the students answering the “comparable” question on WorkKeys. They too would only need an experience such as driving by a bank on a regular basis to equate Celsius temperature with Fahrenheit. No knowledge of algebraic thinking is needed. Further, the formula for conversion is not given, so it seems more realistic that students get this question right by knowing facts, rather than the use of algebraic conversions. Students from cultures using Celsius would have an advantage in responding to this prompt. Were any of the questions on the tests measuring what they intended?
College Readiness and Workforce Training Readiness: Common Expectation? Neither of these test questions (both of which are used as illustrations in this report) really measures more than skills. Teaching students about reasoning and problem solving might arguably be a better approach to making them “ready” for life. With a common focus on core knowledge and thinking, students would perhaps be best prepared for college or the workforce--as well as to exercise life as a citizen of a democracy. This is in contrast to the study’s assertion that educating students for college readiness or workforce readiness according to common academic expectation is the “only way they will be ready for life after high school” (p. 1).
harm to rural places.5 Probable destinies for most children lie in the cities and in the factories. In the case of rural people, I would argue that need to consider carefully what it means to be “ready” for the next phase of life after secondary school.
Policy Suggestions
The report concludes with policy implications dealing with accountability, workforce readiness, common expectations for all and the financing to make it happen. The ACT conveniently recommends that this college and workforce training readiness (measured with the ACT and WorkKeys) be a prerequisite for entry into funded programs.
Implementation of these recommendations has significant implications for students who do not “pass” these assessments. Are we saying that such students are not “ready” for life? It seems a stretch for anyone to pass this judgment on the basis of such evidence. It’s discomfiting to know that the study was done by ACT, which did the WorkKeys Level Scores on job readiness for each job. This entanglement of recommendation, measurement, and ownership (of the ACT and WorkKeys) seriously compromises the study’s validity. The ACT could have avoided this difficulty by using independently developed assessments. One is left with suspicions and little in the report to allay them. Asking whether high school students should have common academic expectations is certainly an important question. Is a company that creates and markets the assessments to judge the adequacy of students’ approach to the expectations the voice best suited to provide the conclusions? It remains profoundly debatable whether or not these
unexamined in this report. Worse, this study fails adequately to warrant its critical assertion that the levels of readiness are the same for both college and the workforce. Further research is needed to answer questions addressed before the study’s
recommendations can be taken seriously.
Notes
1ACT study, Ready for College and Ready for Work: Same or Different?
2Paul Theobald, Teaching the Commons (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997) p. 133 3National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (Reston, VA, 2000)
4Alan DeYoung, The Life and Death of a Rural American High School(New York: Garland Publishing, 1995) pp. 315-317
Feature
Response to:
Ready for College and Ready for Work: Same or Different from ACT Paula Schlesinger (ACCLAIM cohort 2)
This article reports on a study by the ACT which compares the math and reading skills necessary to enter the workforce and the skills necessary to enter college-level courses without remediation. In their discussion of preparation for the workforce, the authors of the article state that they are considering those “jobs that require less than a bachelor’s degree and pay a wage sufficient to support a family, and offer the potential for career advancement” (p. 1).
The comparison was made “by referring to the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) a comprehensive national database of job and worker attributes developed for the Employment and Training Administration of the US Department of Labor” (p. 2). The O*NET classifies jobs into five zones. Jobs in Zone 3 provide a median wage that is just below the $39,066 deemed self-sufficient for a family of 4. They also have the potential for career advancement and the number of these jobs is expected to expand in the future. These jobs also require some post-secondary school training – either on-the-job or an associate’s degree; these on-the-jobs include, for instance, electricians, construction workers, upholsterers, and plumbers. The study looked at O*NET data to determine the skill levels necessary for zone 3 jobs and the ACT Workkeys program, which is used to assess the skill levels of individuals seeking employment.
ACT College Readiness Benchmark. They conducted a statistical concordance between the two instruments by analyzing data from 476,847 high school juniors in Illinois who took both the Workkeys and ACT College Readiness tests. Through this concordance, they concluded that a level 5 on Workkeys was equivalent to a 19-23 on the ACT Reading and an 18-21 on the ACT Math. The College Readiness benchmark for reading is a 21; for math it is a 22.
From this analysis, the authors conclude that “the levels of readiness that high school graduates need to be prepared for college and for workforce training programs are comparable. These empirical results are also supported by commonalities seen in the types of knowledge and skills students need to be ready for college and workforce training programs, even though these skills are often taught and assessed in different contexts. All of these skills can be acquired through rigorous high school courses, regardless of the context (academic or career focused) within which they are taught.”[p. 8, emphasis added].
The summary section of the article ends with a reference to what has become a mantra of our times:
If we are to be competitive in today’s global economy, it is critical for us as a nation to give every high school graduate the opportunity to live a meaningful and productive life and earn a decent wage. All high school graduates should have a sound foundation of knowledge and skills so that they can enter college or workforce training programs ready to learn. [p. 8, emphasis added].
with limited options. Having a common expectation for all students theoretically makes opportunities after high school more equitable.
Nonetheless, underlying assumptions in this article seem problematic. First of all is the idea of how to prepare our students to “compete in the global economy.” The community where I live and teach has been a victim of that competition. Over the past seven years, we have lost clothing and textile facilities, furniture factories, and an
outboard motor factory. Some of these facilities have reopened with new owners, but the net result is the loss of several hundred jobs, in a county with a population of around 15,000. The community college where I teach has the job of “retraining” the workers who have lost their jobs.
When they come to us, one of the first things they are told is that the jobs we can train them for may not exist in our rural community. Every day I see former students of mine who have completed “retraining” and who are now working at gas stations, fast food restaurants and WalMart. These are students with excellent math and reading skills – thanks in part to their retraining, but they are not willing to leave their community and family to find “better” work. For them, competing in the global economy actually means lowering their expectations. One suspects the ACT and its authors might find such a choice irrational and perhaps reprehensible. The choice, however, is common in rural places—in fact, it’s characteristic of people in rural places by virtue of that choice itself (they are those who remain rural).
Another statement that I find problematic appears in the executive summary of the article: “We should be educating all high school students according to a common
college directly after graduation or those who enter workforce training programs – will they be ready for life after high school” (p. 1). One problem with this statement is that it
ignores the students who do not complete high school. There are different methods of calculating the nation’s high school graduation rate. The Manhattan Institute, a
conservative think tank, took the number of 9th graders in 1998 and compared that to the number of high school graduates in 2002 and reported a 72% graduation rate (Greene & Winters 2006). This figure is quoted in the March 2006 piece commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts which reports that a third of all high school students but half of all African Americans, Latinos and Latinas, and American Indians (Bridgeland, Diluljo & Morrison, 2006). The Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, disputes these figures. Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS), they report an 82% graduation rate overall, with an African-American graduation rate between 69% and 75% and a Hispanic rate between 61% and 74% (Mishal & Roy, 2006). Even using the EPI’s figure of 82%, 18% of young people are not graduating from high school. The graduation rate in rural areas is probably lower.
It is difficult to see how the changes advocated by this article might help those students. Their challenge is not exactly a lack of rigor, but other matters, especially the circumstances of their lives. But it’s also important not to confound high school
confuses the issue it seeks to clarify. In North Carolina half of all students entering community colleges need remediation in mathematics. This is true for those entering workforce training programs and for those who intend to transfer to Bachelor’s degree programs.
Another troubling statement asserts that “the primary mission of our public education system is to give every student the opportunity to live a meaningful and productive life, which includes earning a wage sufficient to support a small family” (p. 2). Certainly one of the purposes of public education might be to prepare students for work. However, another important purpose of public education might be to prepare students to be informed participants in that democracy. This report nowhere considers what level of mathematics and reading are required for citizenship in a democracy. And it’s an interesting and open question, little considered! Our country may need more scientists and engineers to “compete in the global economy”, but we also need artists, musicians, philosophers, and theologians. We need citizens with a basic knowledge of statistics and data analysis just to be able to understand information about what is going on in the world, let alone to make independent analyses and critical judgments.
students make this connection has always been the essential rigor governing teachers’ lives in communities serving the public good outside the affluent inner circle of society.
References
Bridgeland, J. M., DiIuljo, J. J., & Morison, K. B. The silent epidemic: Perspectives of high school dropouts. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Education, Retrieved June 2, 2006, from
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/nr/downloads/ed/TheSilentEpidemic3-06FINAL.pdf.
Brint, S. G. (1998). Schools and Society. Thousand Oaks, California: Pine Forge Press. Greene, J. P., & Winters, M. A. (2005). Public High School Graduation and
College-Readiness Rates: 1991–2002. Education Working Paper, 8, Retrieved June 3, 2006, from http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/ewp_08.htm.
Feature
OOPS- we gotta pull this one; let’s save it for the next issue. This is our final “Rural Math Ed Digest”—and there’s no rural in it! I will ask Sherry to add a section of implications for rural—always the most challenging part.
Rural Mathematics Education Digest: What Doesn’t Work: The Challenge and Failure of the What Works Clearinghouse to Conduct Meaningful Reviews of
Studies of Mathematics Curricula Sherry Jones
In his recent article, “What Doesn’t Work: The Challenge and Failure of the What Works Clearinghouse to Conduct Meaningful Reviews of Studies of Mathematics Curricula,” Alan Schoenfeld calls attention to the tight grip that federal agencies and their contracting organizations have on controlling educational research and reporting of effective curricula. Schoenfeld’s dismay and disappointment with censorship by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and failure of the mission of the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) led him, he writes, to resign his position as a senior content advisor to the WWC.
databases and user-friendly reports containing high-quality reviews of “the effectiveness of replicable educational interventions (programs, products, practices, and policies) that intend to improve student outcomes” (www.whatworks.ed.gov).
The mission of the WWC appears to be in agreement with the IES mission “to provide information on the condition of education, practices that improve academic achievement, and the effectiveness of Federal and other education programs.” IES seeks to transform education into an “evidence-based field in which decision makers routinely seek out the best available research and data before adopting programs or practices that will affect significant numbers of students” (www.whatworks.ed.gov).
Schoenfeld’s Perspectives
Schoenfeld, however, points to what he considers to be serious failures of the WWC to provide a “trusted source of scientific evidence.” Studies that qualify as scientifically based research are very narrowly defined to include randomized
experiments, quasi-experiments that use equating procedures, and studies that use the discontinuity regression design. Further, the criteria by which a study is deemed to meet WWC standards is so rigid, claims Shoenfeld, that it excludes what might be very meaningful research to educational practitioners.
When Schoenfeld was initially asked to be a senior content advisor he had
on “background and context,” which traced the historical background of assessment of mathematics curricula, problems with current assessments, and important factors in implementation of curriculum.
Historical Background of Assessment
In tracing the historical background of assessment of mathematics curricula, Schoenfeld emphasized that producing new curricula in response to a perceived
mathematical crisis is not new. Traditional math curriculum has been taught in various forms since the 1950s. This curriculum focuses on procedures to solve a problem and treats learning as an accumulation of knowledge. The curriculum pendulum swung to “new math” in the 1960s in response to the Sputnik launch. In the 1970s, the pendulum swung the other direction in a “back to basics” movement that focused on skill
development. NCTM standards, first introduced in 1989, focused on problem solving and reasoning, making connections, and communicating with mathematics. Cognitive research led to “reform” curriculum in the 1990s because more was understood about mathematical thinking and learning.
The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) was conducted in six grades in more than 40 countries in 1994-95 and indicated that American students’ mathematical performance was distressingly low (i.e., about average among all
and symbol manipulation. Of course, true to history, the new “reform” curriculum is controversial and is at the center of the debate known as “the Math Wars.”
Arguments arise over which curriculum will raise students’ test scores.
Advocates of reform maintain their curriculum is more meaningful while advocates of the traditional curriculum argue that mathematical foundations are not established in the reform curriculum. Schoenfeld maintains that there is no “truly robust comparisons of the impact of the two kinds of curricula.”
Problems with Assessments
Schoenfeld suggests that the “reform” curriculum is so new that very few students have worked their way through a full course of the curriculum. There is little data
available to judge the effectiveness of the new approach. Schoenfeld notes that the data that is available, such as NAEP scores, have not been used to assess traditional curricula and are not appropriate to do the job, so comparisons of reform effectiveness with traditional effectiveness would be difficult, if not impossible. Further, widely-used standardized tests have been heavily focused on procedures while less frequently used tests often do a better job of measuring a range of competencies. Schoenfeld states, “In sum, there are no definitive findings regarding the effectiveness of either traditional or reform curricula that take into account the spectrum of mathematical competencies that are now understood to be central to the effective understanding and use of mathematics” (p. 15). One must know what competencies an assessment covers and what competencies it does not. It is impossible to interpret the findings of a study otherwise.
of problem-solving strategies, reason and communicate mathematical ideas effectively, make effective use of various resources, and have a productive set of beliefs and dispositions about the nature of the mathematical enterprise (p. 15). Developing such competencies takes time and are not easily assessed. Schoenfeld maintains that assessment that focuses only on part of the desired competencies can give misleading results. Therefore, the process of judging the effectiveness of a curriculum becomes flawed. “False positives” and “false negatives” can result when an assessment fails to measure all the relevant competencies. A randomized controlled trial using a flawed assessment instrument will not yield reliable results.
Factors in Implementing Curriculum
Schoenfeld discusses the importance of studying the character of curriculum implementation in context. In order to produce credible findings, the curriculum materials must be used in the manner intended by the designers. Teacher training can also have an impact on the effectiveness of the curriculum under study. The types of support structures in various implementation contexts may also have an impact on the effectiveness of a curriculum. Schoenfeld states, “In the event that information on the quality of implementation is not known, the default assumption will be that the
implementation is “typical” and that differences in implementation will wash out statistically”(pp. 17, 18). Obviously, ignoring the quality of implementation could seriously impact the usefulness of the results of a study.
Schoenfeld’s claims that the perspectives in his essay, the main points of which are outlined above, were censored by IES. Schoenfeld submitted his essay in October 2003 as part of the draft protocol for evaluating middle school mathematics interventions. The draft protocol was returned by IES with instructions to remove the essay, he writes. WWC leadership reassured Schoenfeld that they nonetheless planned to use his essay in the background of the bigger middle school mathematics topic report. In late 2004, however, the middle school mathematics topic report was issued without Schoenfeld’s essay. Schoenfeld was also led to believe that an updated version of his essay would be included in a special issue of the electronic journal Research in Middle Level Education (RMLE) Online. The RMLE issue was to be sponsored by WWC, but once the planned
issue was reviewed by IES, the federal agency reportedly directed the WWC to withdraw the papers, including Schoenfeld’s essay. After the third rejection of his essay,
Schoenfeld concluded, “This cannot be viewed as anything other than an attempt to suppress the expression of scholarly work that calls into question some aspects of the WWC enterprise” (p. 19).
Summary
study. Schoenfeld’s concerns about flawed studies were well-founded and apparently not acted upon by the WWC/IEC collaboration.
Schoenfeld makes a strong case that just because the WCC requires scientific evidence research doesn’t mean that the scientific evidence is necessarily trustworthy. Schoenfeld states, “Given this situation, it is not at all clear how much of the extant literature can provide the information necessary to make meaningful comparisons of mathematics curricula; nor is it clear what kinds of information can result from syntheses of those studies” (p. 17). Furthermore, he plainly says, “A failure to conduct content analyses of the outcome measures used in comparative studies undermines the very purpose for which WWC was created.”
Although Schoenfeld’s article focused on mathematics, the same concerns would apply to any content area. His article is a sobering example of the impact that
Feature
A Review: Rooted in Place: Family and Belonging in a Southern Black Community Courtenay Mays (ACCLAIM cohort 2)
Drawn into the world of a rural African-American family in the Lowcountry—the coastal marshy area of Georgia/South Carolina—readers of sociologist William Falk’s book, Rooted in Place: Family and Belonging in a Southern Black Community, land in a location that outsiders may easily misjudge as impoverished, oppressed, dirty, dangerous, unpredictable, and undereducated. William Falk, through the voices of the featured family, cast an observant eye on a community that possesses its fair share of set backs— individual poverty, community-wide economic constraints, divorce, single-parent
households, drugs, adultery, teenage pregnancy and long term unemployment—but finds satisfying joy in social and family responsibility, moral values, and a strong work ethic. The reader quickly comes to learn that although material goods and power limit this community, they are blessed with a rich existence and powerful stories. Conversations that were so freely shared with Falk as he spent three months visiting homes and partaking in lives, give the reader insight into a world that is not just a physical geographical place but a rich cultural space.
prior to his visit, Falk was aware of the fact that many African Americans in this region had migrated to Northern cities but even more did not. Falk brought (without openly confessing) his own cultural biases of poor people, their communities, and their living conditions to the forefront, while seeking to answer his posed question. One of the book’s real strengths was Falk’s epiphany like moment (shared with readers) when his attitude about poverty, race, and rural people was renewed. Initially Falk--like many other individuals possessing no ties to the community--pondered how anyone could make their lasting habitation in such a wretched place. Through this occurrence, Falk came to discover that the people of Lowcountry were monetarily poor but were blessed with richness and abundance of human spirit. In the concluding chapter, Falk writes, “A place like Colonial County might be labeled neatly as ‘poor’ or perhaps, even more harshly, ‘persistently poor.’ What is often ignored is that it takes little to leap from such a characterization to inferring similar characterizations about the people in these places. As I learned, this is wrong or, more conservatively, may be a gross overgeneralization” (Falk 187).
(Falk 186). AC’s family, as documented in the book, has struggled continuously with their cultural and social circumstances.
AC is one of the many characters I found myself identifying with. I, like AC, acknowledge and identify with the struggles of African Americans in the south and all over the United States, but accept that overcoming these struggles comes down to
personal responsibility. Some of our shared beliefs are as follows: an African American is in charge of his or her own life and his or her existence deals with what they make of it; upward mobility and opportunity are options; and African Americans have the power to decide their own destinies. I believe that African Americans must abolish thoughts of distorted and crippled possibilities in order to move past their plight.
As I read the many stories told in this chapter, the long-suffering strength (physical and spiritual) and “indomitable spirit” of the women of Colonial County resonated with my spirit. Within their stories emerged my personal story. Through their struggles, my struggles were made manifest. I was raised in a home where child and spousal abuse was prevalent. My father was an alcohol and substance abuser. I experienced savage inequalities in the educational system as a poor, abused, African American girl. I became a single parent at the tender age of nineteen. Additionally, I had to rely on welfare to support my child while completing my undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Kentucky. My heartache surfaced with each difficult moment told by the women of Colonial County, but a shared sense of hope,
determination, and purpose kept me reading the passages. My heart rejoiced with their victories, as well as mourning their failures. I, like the women of Colonial County, relied on faith in God and education to overcome my adversities. I, like the women of Colonial County, am a true survivor!
The larger theme of Falk’s work is the pungent effect of place and community in the rural South. It is through these in-depth dialogues with AC and his family that the reader starts to see a sense of interdependence and connectedness amongst human beings. Strong emotional family and community relations prevented many from migrating and caused others to return. A highlight for me was excerpts from interviews that painted a vivid picture of individuals working together for the good of the place without
whatever else) depended on you and, in turn, you simply had to do certain things” (Falk 25). The reading made it clear that this community faced harsh economic constraints, but the arenas of collective being and belonging, and the non-monetary exchange of support, trust, love, and respect, compensated for these circumstances. For AC and his family, self-interest and community interest were interrelated. It proved refreshing to witness the community-oriented world of Colonial County.
This most informative and well-presented book offers a tiny glimpse into the world of African Americans in the rural south. I am reminded of a conversation that William Falk had with Grace. Falk writes, “Grace asked what I really knew about ‘poor people’ and then told me that what things look like from the outside are not always what they look like on the inside” (Falk 59). The reader came to know Colonial County as a place rich in spirit, rich in love, rich in values, and rich in happiness. We all can learn a lesson from Grace. Unfair judgments made by individuals come from ignorance and and the bad habit of mistaking surface for depth. Things, however, are not generally what they seem. For this reason, I recommend this book to every individual that has judged rural Americans unfairly.
Falk, William W. Rooted in Place: Family and Belonging in a Southern Black Community. 1. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2004.
Our Neck of the Woods
Terri Hopkins
ACCLAIM Prepares for Cohort III
The ACCLAIM management team met in September to review the applications of over 40 teachers interested in becoming a member of the 3rd Doctoral Cohort. With so many qualified applicants, the selection process was quite difficult. Seventeen invitations were issued to join Cohort III, and there are four applicants on the waiting list, should one of the seventeen be unable to commit to the program.
This cohort represents the most geographically diverse group of students with which ACCLAIM has worked as the call for applications was extended nationwide this year, rather than being limited to Appalachia. The 17 invitees hail from ten different states. Kentucky has the most invitees with four, followed by Virginia with three. The states of Washington and Texas each have two representatives. Indiana, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Alaska, North Carolina, and Ohio complete the states represented in Cohort III.
Cohort III will start classes next summer in Morgantown, West Virginia at the University of West Virginia. The cohort members will move into campus housing on Sunday, June 10 and will begin classes the next day. The summer classes will run a slightly different calendar this year. With so many cohort members having to travel such great distances, and travel so expensive, the management team decided it made more fiscal sense to continue classes during the week of the 4th of July (traditionally a break week for ACCLAIM students), rather than take a week off and return back to campus for a week and a half of classes.
locations outside Appalachia will help not only cohort members have a richer experience, but also those working with the cohort.
Research Initiative Update Craig Howley
The Research Initiative is running on two tracks at this writing. First, we’re winding down work with the research strategy that prevailed from September 2001-September 2006. What this means is that researchers and editors are completing work on a number of products: Working Papers, Occasional Papers, Monographs, and Rural Mathematics Education Digests.
Second, a range of new working has begun. We’re (1) starting a new publication series (as our students begin to complete rural math education dissertation studies), (2) beginning a new national study of rural place-based mathematics education as the major work of the Research Initiative for 2006-2009, and (3) planning our fourth ACCLAIM Research Symposium (for spring 2007).
The rest of this update provides the relevant details. The focal work will be the new national study.
The Wind-Up Work with the Established Publication Series
Since the previous issue, we have published The Third ACCLAIM Research Symposium: Proceedings (Occasional Paper No. 14). Our last issue briefly described the
includes links to the three major papers by ACCLAIM scholars Gruenewald, Civil, and Lubienski.
The following Working Paper (no. 33) was just published:
Place-Based Education in the United States and Thailand: With Implications for
Mathematics Education Wipada Wanich (Ohio University).
Additional Working Papers are still in progress:
Factors Contributing to Rural High School Students’ Participation in Advanced
Mathematics Courses by Rick Anderson (Eastern Illinois University).The author has completed the draft, which is awaiting review and copyediting.
Mathematics Education in Rural Georgia: The Crossroad of Social, Political, and
Economic Factors Margaret Sloan (University of Georgia). The dissertation on which this paper is to be based has been completed and approved and the draft of the paper is in progress.
Reform of Secondary Mathematics Education in High-performing Rural Schools Aimee Howley, Craig Howley, and Virginia Helms (Ohio University). Paper accepted for AERA 2007; see related story in this issue.
Our final Rural Mathematics Education Digest (No. 8) appears as a feature article in this issue (summarizing Alan Schoenfeld’s recent piece in Educational Researcher, and connecting the relevant issues to rural mathematics education). It will also be posted in the “RuMED” section of the Research Clearinghouse.
mountainous West Virginia. For the study completed this spring, Lucas and students studied residents’ views of mathematics and mathematics education in a mid-west farming community in Illinois. ACCLAIM student Jamie Fugitt (cohort 2) participated in the study on site.
Finally, an additional Occasional Paper (no. 16) is in progress. This paper, likely our final number in this series, will summarize key episodes and findings from the past five years of work completed by the Center’s third-party evaluation team from Inverness Research Associates.
New Publication Series: ACCLAIM Rural Mathematics Education Dissertation Studies Students in ACCLAIM’s first doctoral cohort have started to complete
dissertations. Studies that examine issues in rural mathematics education will be featured in a new section of the Research Clearinghouse.
Caroline Best successfully defended such a study quite recently and is working on a manuscript for the Center; Christy Perry is in the process of gathering data and her study will be completed in the coming months. Other students, of course, are working on prospectuses.
The Get-It-Going Work
Such connections are comparatively common in social studies, language arts, and science. But not in mathematics.
For this reason the initial work of the study involves finding 10 places where such rare connections are actually being made by rural educators who teach math. We are starting this identification effort by creating a list of 40 or 50 colleagues whom we suspect might have some connections to such places. We expect the identification phase of the study to be difficult work, simply because of the reported rareness of the sort of practice we seek to locate. This challenge, however, is all part of the study.
We are not taking a “purist” outlook on place-based education, but merely want to talk with people where math is not exclusively an in-class exercise. We hope to find many programs that take students outside the school for “laboratory” events or “experiential learning” of some sort. But we hardly know what to expect. That’s the rationale for doing this sort of work—nothing much is known.
Once 10 sites have been identified and have agreed to participate, the study plans to send two ACCLAIM researchers to spend a week on site doing such things as
conducting interviews, making observations, and reviewing documents. Depending on what is discovered during the initial phase, however, these original plans are subject to change.
The Fourth Research Symposium
Symposium will be the student transition from coursework to candidacy and to
conducting dissertation research. We expect that plans will call for an emphasis on the process of this experience and its substance (i.e., consideration of actual research questions and methods).
Announcement
Teacher of the Year
Barbara Buckner, a member of ACCLAIM cohort one, was named East Tennessee Grand Division Teacher of the Year in Tennessee’s state level recognition of Teacher of the Year. Barbara is a 12-year teaching veteran who teaches science as well as working with students in many extra-curricular activities and service projects at Bradley Central High School. She is also currently a PhD candidate in mathematics education.
“This award honors teachers who epitomize the dedication, innovation and knowledge which characterize an outstanding educator,” Education Commissioner Lana Seivers said. “Students respond when teachers show enthusiasm for their subject and genuine interest in the lives and success of their students.”
Congratulations, Barbara!
Announcement
Actually, whether they are good, bad, or middling isn’t the point at all. The point is about community-connected math instruction in any public school at all.
ACCLAIM is conducting a two-year study of rural public schools (in Appalachia and throughout the U.S.) in which at least one teacher of mathematics (K-12) actively links some portion of the curriculum via connections with the local community. If there’s a science teacher whose instruction incorporates a lot of math, that would be good. And so would a vocational teacher doing the same thing. The focus is K-12, public, and this could include vocational schools, alternative schools, virtual or public charter schools.
So far, we keep hearing that this is seldom done, though our informants tell us that such connections are common in science, English, social studies—in fact, in everything else except mathematics.
If you know of such a teacher or such a school, or suspect you do, please drop Craig Howley (AAMTE Board member and ACCLAIM Research Initiative co-director at Ohio University) a quick email message ([email protected]).
The study aims to provide a rich description of what’s going on with these teachers, schools, and communities.
Announcement
The 30th Annual Appalachian Studies Association Conference will be held
at Maryville College in Maryville, TN on March 23-25, 2007.
The 2007 ASA Conference celebrates the 30th Anniversary of the Appalachian
Studies Association with the theme "Piecing the Appalachian Experience." Like a
and culture, this conference will join together a variety of experiences, presentations,
and research to commemorate the ASA and the Appalachian region. Piecing together
work from individuals and groups, including special retrospective sessions, we will
explore over three decades of Appalachian inquiry, activism, and service.
We encourage you to join more than 500 colleagues in sharing and participating in
the conference through:
* Participatory/active discussions
* Panel discussions/round-tables
* Presentations of community-based research and projects
* Research papers
* Poster sessions/display tables
* Presentations of films, photography, painting, poetry, music, and dance
* Educational and informative workshops
* Sponsorship of a reception for organizations, authors, etc.
Complete details about the conference may be found by going to the website at:
www.maryvillecollege.edu/asa .
Upcoming Events
NCTM 2007 Annual Meeting and Exposition
